Many people use hearing assistance devices to improve their day-to-day listening experience. Persons who are hard of hearing have many options for hearing assistance devices. One such device is a hearing aid. Hearing aids may be worn on-the-ear, behind-the-ear, in-the-ear, and completely in-the-canal. Hearing aids can help restore hearing, but they can also amplify unwanted sound which is bothersome and sometimes ineffective for the wearer.
Many attempts have been made to provide different hearing modes for hearing assistance devices. For example, some devices can be switched between directional and omnidirectional receiving modes. However, different users typically have different exposures to sound environments, so that even if one hearing aid is intended to work substantially the same from person-to-person, the user's sound environment may dictate uniquely different settings.
However, even devices which are programmed for a person's individual use can leave the user without a reliable improvement of hearing. For example, conditions can change and the device will be programmed for a completely different environment than the one the user is exposed to. Or conditions can change without the user obtaining a change of settings which would improve hearing substantially.
What is needed in the art is an improved system for updating hearing assistance device settings to improve the quality of sound received by those devices. The system should be highly programmable to allow a user to have a device tailored to meet the user's needs and to accommodate the user's lifestyle. The system should provide intelligent and automatic switching based on detected environments and programmed settings and should provide reliable performance for changing conditions.